Ever Forward is owned by Evergreen Marine Corporation, the same company that Ever Given owns, which ran aground and blocked the Suez Canal for a week, disrupting the global supply chain. The ship, the length of which exceeds three football fields, sailed early Sunday from two barges and five tugs. The operation to free him from the bottom of the bay was the third attempt after the failure of two previous ones and after the removal of about 500 of the 5,000 containers he was carrying. A full moon and the high tide of spring helped lift the lifeboats as they pulled and pushed the huge ship out of the mud, over a dug hole and back into the canal. Once floating again, the Ever Forward was weighed again by water tanks to ensure safe passage under the Chesapeake Bay Bridge on its way to an anchorage off Annapolis, the Baltimore Sun reported. Naval inspectors will inspect the ship’s hull before the Coast Guard allows it to return to Baltimore Harbor to retrieve the unloaded containers. A tug pushes a barge full of containers away from the Ever Forward container ship in Pasadena, Maryland, on April 11. Photo: Jim Watson / AFP / Getty Images The cargo ship, operated by Taiwan-based Evergreen Marine Corp, was traveling from Baltimore to Norfolk, Virginia, on March 13 when it ran aground just north of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Officials said the grounding did not lead to reports of injuries, damage or pollution. The Coast Guard has not said what caused the grounding of Ever Forward. The ship got stuck outside the shipping canal and did not impede maritime navigation, unlike last year’s high-profile stranding on the Suez Canal of the ship’s brother, Ever Given. Rescue crews continued to unload containers from Ever Forward until 22:30 on Saturday. The containers were loaded on barges and transported to the Seagirt Marine Terminal in Baltimore. After two failed attempts to free the boat more than 1,000 feet (305 meters), rescue workers decided earlier this month that unloading some of the containers offered the best opportunity to float it again. The crews also continued dredging at a depth of 43 feet (13 meters) around the boat.
